End-of-Year COVID Updates

May, 19, 2020 

Dear SLU community,

I write with a final COVID-19 update for the 2021-2022 academic year. The COVID team would like to end this year by sharing gratitude for all of the ways you helped keep our community safe and healthy. We also have a few updates to share about summer and fall.

This email includes:

• Gratitude for our community’s COVID response
• Summer pause on dashboard & vaccination clinics
• Current infection rates & face mask reminders
• Looking ahead to fall

Gratitude and year-end summary

Thanks in large measure to the community centeredness of our students, faculty and staff, our St. Louis campuses remained open for in-person instruction despite big waves of infections caused by the Delta and Omicron variants.

In fact, in spring semester, we recorded more than 1,000 COVID-19 cases among students — more than the previous three semesters combined.

We responded to those cases with urgency and care, and with minimal disruption to classrooms, labs and campus operations. We remained in person for the entire academic year, and we are ending the semester with few restrictions in place.

Many dedicated faculty, staff, and students implemented evidence-based COVID-19 management processes to make this possible:

• Vaccination and booster requirements reduced disease burden and symptom severity. Thank you to the Valentine School of Nursing students and supervising faculty, who have conducted 100 campus vaccine clinics since March, 2021.
• Our incredible contact tracing team acted swiftly to contain clusters of student infections and mitigate campus spread. This team is made up of our public health graduate students. Their detective work followed up on more cases and close contacts per COVID infection this semester than ever before, with unwavering professionalism.
• Isolation requirements for COVID-positive students were cut from 10 days to 5 for many students (those with a negative antigen test). Students in campus isolation housing were supported by Student Health Center staff, who checked in with students daily. DPS colleagues and volunteers provided transportation. Meals were prepared by Sodexo staff and delivered by volunteers.
• Asymptomatic surveillance testing monitored the ebbs and flows of disease prevalence among our St. Louis campus students. School of Nursing students supported the COVID team to conduct testing clinics.
• Finally, your commitment to seeking testing when symptomatic was a critical factor in our successful move to masks-optional, restriction-free gatherings. Thank you to all of the students, faculty, and staff who have been vigilant about getting tested. Thank you to Employee Health for supporting employees with testing and consultation.

Faculty and staff, you supported the COVID team with insight and advice. You also adapted in countless ways to support students and one another. Thank you for your continued dedication, flexibility, and grace.

And we must again recognize the courageous and dedicated care our healthcare clinicians have provided to the campus and community. You have been on the frontlines of this pandemic since the beginning and continue to provide compassionate care to your patients.

We are grateful to be members of such a caring and committed community. Thank you all.

Summer pause on dashboard and vaccination clinics

• The last dashboard of the semester will be posted on Tuesday, May 24. The data will be archived for your reference, and the dashboard will be on pause for summer.
• We will suspend our on-campus vaccination clinics this summer. If you need vaccine or booster doses this summer, or you wish to have your child, ages 5 to 11, vaccinated with the newly authorized Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, please find a community location that is convenient for you. We shall re-open our vaccination clinics early in the fall semester.

Current infection rates and face mask reminders

Remember that face masks continue to be required in clinical settings where a patient encounter is likely. Face masks remain optional in all other on-campus settings, including at this week’s commencement events.

As you spend time in public indoor spaces, especially if they are crowded, remember that face masks are exceptionally effective tools for limiting disease transmission.

COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations are trending upward in our region and have been for the past four weeks; the St. Louis County COVID-19 community risk level recently moved from “low” to “medium.”

We can all be active participants in reducing the spread of disease. If you are concerned about your own health or the health of your loved ones, we encourage you to wear a face mask in public.

We will encourage and make face masks available for guests at commencement who wish to safeguard their own health and the health of others.

Looking ahead to fall

SLU is committed to supporting the well-being of our community — mind, body, and spirit. A recent email from Provost Lewis and Vice President Cunningham reflected on the University’s ongoing work to support the holistic well-being of our community.

One facet of our campus well-being efforts is our COVID-19 mitigation. We will continue to use a layered approach to risk reduction, which will allow us to be together in community, as safely as possible.

A working group has been assembled to review our COVID-19 vaccine requirement for the fall 2022 semester and will make a recommendation to the President on the role that required vaccination should play in our COVID-management practices going forward. We will update you when a policy decision has been made.

We wish you a restful and restorative summer. Stay safe and be well.

Terri Rebmann, Ph.D., RN, CIC, FAPIC
Special Assistant to the President
Director, Institute for Biosecurity
Professor, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics
College for Public Health and Social Justice